Halifax Health Medical Center owns the 8.8-acre site with the soon-to-be-leveled former Atlantic Medical Center, as well as another 77.5 contiguous acres to the south

EILEEN ZAFFIRO-KEANSTAFF WRITER

DAYTONA BEACH— In a few months, a big white building that's been sitting at the intersection of Clyde Morris Boulevard and Dunn Avenue for nearly 40 years will be toppled and a new era will begin for the block that's been home to the aging structure. Demolition of the 120,000-square-foot Atlantic Medical Center will be the first visible sign of a bigger plan for sweeping changes on the southwest corner of the intersection a few blocks north of International Speedway Boulevard. Halifax Health Medical Center owns the 8.8-acre site with the soon-to-be-leveled structure, as well as another 77.5 contiguous acres to the south, and the hospital is charging toward a vision of turning the full 86-plus acres into a new development that could include a mix of medical buildings, apartments, hotels, restaurants, shops, professional offices, nursing homes, gyms and hair salons. "That property is an important hole in the 'donut' of urban redevelopment for this critical area of Daytona Beach," said local attorney Rob Merrell, who's working with the hospital on the project. "I'm excited about the possibilities and potential for development of a mixed-use project on the site which will complement the retail, residential and institutional uses in the area." There are no plans to tear down any of the other buildings fronting Clyde Morris Boulevard. But beyond that, top hospital officials say they don't know yet exactly what will wind up on the thickly forested land behind those buildings. "We don't have any definitive plans for the property," said Halifax Health CEO Jeff Feasel. "We're just exploring all the options." Right now they're focused on getting the 77.5 acres rezoned from only hospital and medical uses to a planned master development. City commissioners already gave initial approval to the planned master development rezoning, and they're slated to take a final vote Wednesday night. The measure is on the commissioners' agenda, but the hospital is asking them to delay their vote until Dec. 19 to allow more time to wrap up a few loose ends. The hospital will soon try to get the land the Atlantic Medical Center is on added to the Planned Master Development, said Merrell, who's with the Cobb Cole law firm. The planned master development would allow up to 1,600 apartments, nearly 5,000 hotel rooms, 1.3 million square feet of retail space, 2 million square feet of hospital space, 3.1 million square feet of business space and 3.1 million square feet of office space. Those are the maximum numbers the city would permit under the planned master development, and not all of those types of uses would be allowed to hit those upper limits — nor would all of that fit. If all goes well at City Hall for hospital officials, some of their first tasks will be figuring out how to best deal with the homeless population that lives in the wooded areas of the property they'd like to develop, addressing the large feral cat population there and eventually clearing parts of the land of vegetation, Merrell said. The old hospital building slated for demolition was built in 1974, said Glenn Ritchey, vice chairman of Halifax Health's Board of Commissioners and the city's former mayor. The four-story complex started out as Humana Hospital, and in 1999 Halifax Health purchased the property to use it for both inpatient and outpatient services, said Ritchey. By about 2003, the hospital was using the building at 400 N. Clyde Morris Blvd. only for outpatient services, Feasel said. Eventually Halifax Health had no need for the structure so the hospital took in other tenants. By early 2011, there was only one tenant. "We explored it for rehabilitative functions, but it was too inefficient for that," Feasel said. Halifax Health paid $14 million for the property, which is across from the hospital on the west side of Clyde Morris Boulevard. Two years ago Halifax Health made an unsuccessful attempt to sell it for $5 million. "We've had several people look at the building but no one wants it," Ritchey said. In 2006, officials affiliated with Volusia Mall were interested in the site, possibly for a combination of medical uses, a bookstore and a coffee shop, Feasel said. But with the sputtering economy the idea never took off, he said. The building wound up empty more than a year ago, but Halifax Health has still had to spend about $250,000 per year for things such as keeping the power on, maintaining the structure and guarding the building. The roughly $600,000 to $900,000 the hospital expects to spend for demolition will be an investment in ending that annual expense, as well as the best route to redevelop the property, Ritchey and Feasel said. Renovations for the building could have cost more than $13 million, hospital officials have estimated. John Johnson, chairman of the Halifax Health Board of Commissioners and president of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, has called it "an albatross hanging around our neck." "Renovations are so cost-prohibitive it doesn't make sense to try to retrofit it," Ritchey said. "And a client would probably prefer a vacant property." Demolition should start around mid-January and be completed some time in March, Ritchey said. The hospital still needs to choose a demolition company. "We're not going to implode it," Ritchey said, noting hospital officials don't expect any asbestos to slow down the process. After demolition, the property will develop in phases, with the size and configuration of those phases being dictated by Halifax Health and the economy, city officials have said. The planned master development with the city will lay out ground rules, such as the maximum height of buildings.

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